It's an IPO by a well-regarded underwriter -- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter-- and the company showed a profit of $257 million on $8 billion in revenue last year.

Both the profit and the underwriter may signal a strong IPO as the testing and instrument company readies its debut. Other factors, such as market conditions, the number of shares and the price, could also come into play.

Profit and strong brand names seem to work well in the new issue market despite some rockiness. Quest Software, for example, had a strong debut last week partly because it's already profitable.

"It's a strong company and it should be a leader in the measurement business," said analyst Jonathan Ross, who covers Hewlett-Packard for ABN Amro. "H-P is keeping a strong hand in there so (Agilent's) profits should accrue back to the parent as well."

Agilent's competitors

Agilent's test and measurement business competes against several companies.

In the semiconductor test market, Agilent rivals include Advantest, Schlumberger Limited and Teradyne.

In the printed circuit board test market, the company squares off against GenRad and Teradyne.

Despite a crowded field, Hewlett-Packard has already been able to show a profit for the unit, which traces its roots to Hewlett-Packard's historic specialty before computers moved up.

Hot newcomers

Shares of recent IPO Audible
adbl
rose 30 percent Monday on news of a content distribution deals with Microsoft and RealNetworks. It was one of several stock newcomers that boosted the Web sector recently. See Net Stocks.

MP3
mppp
shares jumped as the online music specialist grabbed buy ratings from CS First Boston and CS First Boston.

Hoovers.com, which went public on July 21, advanced as Wit Capital placed a buy rating on the stock. Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Homestore.com
HOMS
also climbed.

Last week's IPOs were headlined by two steaming debuts -- Red Hat
rhat
and Quest Software, but both cooled off on Monday. Quest Software fell back 7 5/8 to 39 3/8 and Red Hat dipped 10 3/4 to 74 1/2.

Week ahead

David Menlow of the IPO Network said the coming IPO week will be "transitional" with no deals rivaling the success of Red Hat or Quest.

Still, Menlow said he's keeping his eye on two Merrill Lynch deals: a $55 million IPO from online marketer Mypoints.com and a $40 million IPO from broadband wireless specialist Netro.

Late Monday, an IPO from Silverstream Software was priced at $16 per share, above the anticipated range of $13 to $15. Silverstream is a business-to-business provider of server software for intranets, extranets and the Internet. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter as the underwriter.

Postponed

Meanwhile, the IPO market continued to fade for the faint-hearted.

Havardnet Inc. of Boston postponed its $154 million IPO with underwriter Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. The company, which provides high speed data networking and Web hosting to the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, lost $1.3 million last year on revenue of $4.3 million.

CommScan Analytics is forecasting a total of 24 IPOs this week, but others may bump plans as summer doldrums engulf the new issues market after a flurry of activity this year.

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